Robin van Persie believes that the serious ankle injury which effectively cost
Arsenal their chance of winning last season’s Premier League could have the
unintended consequence of helping Holland to lift the World Cup.

Orange order: Robin van Persie believes his injury lay-off at Arsenal has kept him fresh to help Holland's push at the World CupPhoto: AFP

By Jeremy Wilson and Mark Ogden

10:30PM BST 27 Jun 2010

While one clear trend of the tournament so far has been a series of jaded performances from players based in England, Van Persie is fresh and still approaching full match fitness after being out between last October and April.

Holland are the only European country to have begun the World Cup with three straight group wins and, ahead of Tuesday’s last-16 match in Durban with Slovakia, Van Persie declared that this is their best opportunity of winning the tournament.

“This is the best team I have played in so far,” he said. “We have been on a great run in matches and when you look at the level in training, it is unbelievable - amazing. This is our best chance ever. If you look at the age of our senior players, most of us are 25 or 26.”

Holland manager Bert van Marwijk has retained faith with Van Persie as the lone striker in the preferred 4-2-3-1 system despite his absence of goals so far, with the Arsenal forward adamant that he is close to his best form.

“Physically and even mentally there is more to come,” he said. “You can be very tired when you start a tournament after playing 60 or 70 games but I’ve played 25 and I am ready physically and mentally. I feel very, very fresh.”

Van Marwijk has come under pressure in Holland for the rather workmanlike style of the three wins so far, but he expects the team to now steadily build momentum in contrast to the way they began Euro 2008 in such style before losing in the first knockout round.

They should also be helped against Slovakia by the availability of Arjen Robben, who is back in full training and expected to take the place of Rafael van der Vaart on the left of Holland’s attacking trio of midfielders. “I did talk to Rafael and he has a cramp in his calf and that points towards a sprain,” Van Marwijk said.